Influencer marketing and its effectiveness on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intention

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Influencer marketing and its effectiveness

on consumers’ attitudes and purchase

intention

Louise Olsson

Erica Wärme

Business and Economics, master's level 2020

Luleå University of Technology

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Abstract

Social media is nowadays one of the best ways to reach new potential customers. Social media platforms allow influencers to promote brands and reach even more customers. These new platforms are relatively untested as regards its effectiveness. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate if influencers affected customers´ attitudes and purchase intentions more than online adverts, regarding energy drinks. The thesis used an experiment in order to investigate this further. Combined with previous research in this area and the data from the study’s questionnaire, a result for this thesis could be formulated. The study showed that there was no statistical significant difference of effectiveness between using an influencer or an online advert when it comes to what affects consumers attitudes and purchase intentions, regarding energy drinks.

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Sammanfattning

Sociala medier är numera ett av de bästa sätten att nå potentiella kunder. Sociala plattformar gör det möjligt för influencers att marknadsföra varumärken och nå ännu fler kunder. Dessa plattformar är relativt nya och har därmed inte blivit testade för deras effektivitet. Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka om influencers påverkade kundernas attityder och köpintentioner mer än online-annons gällande energidrycker. Studien använde sig av ett experiment för att undersöka detta ytterligare. I kombination med tidigare forskning kring detta område såväl som studiens enkät kunde ett resultat utformas. Studiens resultat visade inte att det fanns någon statistisk signifikant skillnad i att använda sig utav en influencer eller online-annons när det kommer till att påverka konsumenters attityder och köpvilja gällande energidrycker.

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Acknowledgements

The authors of this thesis would like to thank everyone involved along the way in making this thesis complete. A sincere thanks to our supervisor Joe Vella who has helped with feedback during the process and contributed with new insights that has contributed to the thesis. The authors would also like to thank everyone who took their time in answering the questions for the study’s experiment. Lastly, the authors would like to thank the course members who have helped with feedback and advice during the journey which contributed to making this thesis as good as possible.

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List of Figures

Figure 2.1: The dual-mediation hypothesis model……….……....11

Figure 2.2: Theory of Reasoned Action……….………12

Figure 2.4: Conceputal framework……….………...….14

Figure 3.1: The experiment strategy for this study……….…18

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Figure 3.3: Sample size of this study………..…….…….22

List of Tables

Table 4.1: Distribution of the total respondents ………...………24

Table 4.2: Distribution gender within groups………..….……24

Table 4.3: Data Summary Attitudes………..……26

Table 4.4: ANOVA Summary Attitudes………..…….……26

Table 4.5: Tukey-Kramer Post Hoc test on Attitudes after ANOVA…………..….………27

Table 4.6: Critical-q vs q value from Post Hoc……….……27

Table 4.7: Data Summary Purchase intention………..……….……28

Table 4.8: ANOVA Summary Purchase intention………...….…28

Table 4.9: Tukey-Kramer Post Hoc test on Purchase intention after ANOVA…………...28

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1. Introduction

This chapter will begin by introducing the topic of this thesis which is social media and its growing impact on marketing. On this basis, a problem discussion will be formulated and thereafter followed with the thesis research hypothesis and delimitations.

1.1 Background

The success of the Internet came along with drastic changes and conventional marketing communication was replaced with new platforms such as social media. The introduction of smartphones and tablets created more active users and increased the amount of activities on social media. These activities include sharing content and knowledge and being part of discussions with other people. The steady growth of social media platforms has changed the whole marketing landscape. Seeing that consumers’ behavior online is changing as the digital interactivity on social media is growing. (Heinonen, 2011).

Word-of-mouth (WOM) originally started as an unpaid form of marketing where satisfied or unsatisfied customers could recommend a product or company (Arora & Bacouël-Jentjens, 2014). Today, word-of-mouth has grown and is more common within social media as social activities on the Internet have increased dramatically during the last years. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has developed into a gainful way for enterprises to promote their products through influencers at their platforms. (Chu & Kim, 2011). Influencers are online personalities with a large follower base throughout one or several social media platforms (Lou & Yuan, 2019.)

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ways of marketing to reach its customers (Woods, 2016). Using influencers in marketing has become one new way to reach its customers (Glucksman, 2017).

The expansion of the Internet and social platforms causes companies to consider the use of these platforms in order to achieve positive attitudes towards the company among the customers. Attitudes play an important role since they consist of positive or negative feelings that individuals have towards objects (Wild & Wild, 2016), and could be described as favorable or unfavorable responses that are learned predisposition (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). According to Crespo-Hervas, Alguacil, & Núñez-Pomar (2018) customers’ attitudes towards a brand will influence their purchase decision.

Today, social media is frequently used to advertise brands, and it has become more common to see brands of energy drinks marketed on social media. Recent studies have shown that WOM has an impact on consumers’ choice of function drinks, where energy drinks are included (Hansson & Gustafsson, 2019). Energy drinks are nowadays typically consumed by the younger generation, where marketing plays a vital role for the consumption (Gunja & Brown, 2012).

The world is constantly changing, and so is marketing, but are consumers’ attitudes and subsequent purchase intentions affected differently, depending on whether the information comes from an influencer or through an online advert? Are influencers affecting our attitudes towards brands and products? And if WOM affects customers’ purchase decision, how are influencers affecting our purchase decision with eWOM when it comes to energy drinks?

1.2 Problem discussion

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assist them in their decision making whether to use influencer marketing or not. (Korotina & Jargalsaikhan, 2016).

According to (Hajli, 2014), social media creates higher social interaction among consumers, which leads to increased purchase intention. The lack of insights in influencer marketing is something this study will try to reduce. Consequently, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to the overall problem of not knowing to what extent consumers’ attitudes are affected by the influencers marketing efforts, and how it contributes to consumers’ purchase intention. Moreover, this thesis will try to understand the value of the effects of using influencer marketing compared to online advertisement.

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to find if influencers affect customers’ attitudes and purchase intentions more, compared to regular online advertisement when it comes to energy drinks.

1.4 Research hypothesis

In order to fulfill the purpose and clarify the research problem, we have conducted two different research hypotheses (H), specifically:

H1: Consumers show a stronger positive attitude towards the brand when subjected to an

influencer rather than an online advert.

H2: Consumers’ purchase intention is stronger when products are promoted by an influencer

rather than an online advert.

In order to answer these hypotheses, this thesis is utilizing an experiment, using a questionnaire.

1.5 Delimitations

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2. Literature review

In this chapter, a literature review is presented, which was conducted in order to create a basis for this thesis. Areas of social media, such as e-WOM are presented, as well as theories about attitudes and purchase intention. Moreover, influencer marketing and online advertisement will be analyzed in order to support this thesis.

2.1 Social media and advertisement

Social media generally refers to web applications that allow users to post and share content (Lange-Faria & Elliot, 2012). Jack Dorsey who is the CEO of Twitter, states “social media platforms are sites of speaking where individuals express themselves and social justice groups operate - but they are also sites of knowing, where businesses use individuals” (Carter, 2016). Safko (2010, p.3) elaborates the concept of social media and firstly explains it as “the media we use to be social”. Secondly, combined with new efficient technology, it is used to “reach out and connect with other humans, create relationships, build trust, and be there when the people in those relationships are ready to purchase our product offering” (Safko, 2010, p.4). As of today, the development of technologies has increased the usage of mobile phones and computers with the easy access of low-cost internet and systems. Consequently out of this, altered ways for marketers to interact with consumers has developed (Kotler & Keller, 2016). The way individuals interact and use social media will further change significantly as technologies continue to evolve (Allsteadt, 2017). Finally, these social media platforms are considered to be the place where the influence is shaped by influencer marketing (Carter, 2016).

2.1.1 Growing power of influencers and influencer marketing

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consumers who tend to quest for recommendations with others, share ideas and information with others. However, in this thesis, the definition of influencer by Lou & Yuan (2019) will be utilized.

The use of social media influencers has increased the use of influencer marketing on social media, which in turn has opened up new ways for brands to interact with consumers in their everyday life and in a more direct way (Glucksman, 2017). Carter (2016) chooses to describe influencer marketing as "a rapidly growing industry that attempts to promote products or increase brand awareness through content spread by social media users who are considered to be influential”. Implementing influencer marketing is concerned with the practice of identifying those individuals who in turn have a greater impact of a targeted group (Sigala, 2017). Lastly, influencer marketing is marketing on social media that focuses on using influencers to drive a brand’s message to the larger market (Tapinfluence, 2017). The definition by Tapinfluence (2017) is the definition utilized in this thesis.

Moreover, influencer marketing could be explained as a combination of old and new marketing tools where the celebrity endorsement is placed into the present content-driven campaign (Influencermarketinghub, 2019). Sigala (2017) argued that having the right influencer for a specific marketing campaign is considered crucial to its success. The growth of social media has contributed to a huge number of influencers, which makes companies facing the difficult challenge of identifying and choosing the right influencer for the brand´s target audience (De Veirman, Cauberghe & Hudders, 2017). Consequently, influencer marketing is considered to differentiate the results of the campaign in form of collaborations between the influencers and the brands (Influencermarketinghub, 2019). It has been found that consumers who have been exposed to influencer marketing purchased significantly more products in each purchase occasion than the control group that had been exposed to traditional online marketing (Nielsen, 2016). Influencers has also been shown to be a reliable and credible channel, and impact consumers behavior. It has also been shown that influencers are more believable and knowledgeable, which make them more suitable to explain how the product works. (The Keller Fay Group & Berger, 2016).

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trustworthiness and attractiveness, which affected their purchase intentions of the products promoted by the influencers. However, the trustworthiness was shown to have a bigger impact for women than for men (Rebelo, 2017). Further, the study from Rebelo (2017) explains the importance of having the right influencer in companies campaigns in order to satisfy Instagram users.

2.1.2 Electronic Word-of-mouth

Word-of-mouth (WOM) plays an essential role in shaping customers behavior and changing their attitudes towards products and services (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1966; Godes & Mayzlin, 2004). It has moved from a face-to-face context to a more complex computer-mediated communication happening online (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004). It is important, however, to understand the prominent differences between electronic and traditional WOM. Traditional WOM has been examined as interpersonal informational exchange between individuals who are familiar to each other (Brown & Reingen, 1987), meanwhile electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has a lack of familiarity (Gupta & Harris, 2008). According to Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004, p.39) eWOM is defined as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet”.

eWOM has evolved into a valuable opportunity for enterprises since people are now able to discuss products and services on social media platforms (Erkan & Evans, 2016). The increased use of social media platforms allows enterprises to influence consumers´ product evaluation (Doh & Hwang, 2009). Moreover, the growing expansion of social media affects the spread of eWOM (Lim & Chung, 2011). Social media allow consumers to have their own voices in public forums, as well as access to product information that facilitates their purchase decision. Consequently out of this, it reduces the anonymity of the message which in turn makes eWOM information more trustworthy and reliable. (Kim & Chen, 2018).

2.1.3 Online advertisement

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of potential customers (Mirabi et al., 2015). One common definition of advertisement is “one-way promotional communication in any mass media” (Tuten, 2008, p.2). Ha (2012, p.3) on the other hand, proposes online advertisement as “deliberate messages placed on third-party web sites including search engines and directories available through Internet access”.

Even though many marketers increasingly are targeting their customers with highly “influential” or opinion leaders, Bakshy, Hofman, Mason, & Watts, (2011), doubt its value and suggest that it could be less cost effective than other marketing tools. The same research suggests that the use of contagious content may be more beneficial. Berger & Milkman's (2012) research shows that marketers should produce content which evokes high arousal emotions and amuses the consumer. By producing content in the advertisement that arouses emotional-links leads to increased chances for brands to connect with consumers through these ads (Mirabi, Akbariyeh, & Tahmasebifard, 2015). If the marketer is successful in creating content which activates these feelings among the consumers, the company is more likely to have a positive effect from its marketing campaign.

2.2 Purchase intention

According to Aykaç & Yilmaz (2020), purchase intention is defined as “consumers’ intention to take a purchase action for a product”. Purchase intention is a part of the decision-making process which analyses the reason why a consumer buys a particular brand. The process of purchase intention is very complex and is usually correlated to the perceptions, behaviour and attitude of the consumer. Using purchase intention as a tool is considered effective to predict consumer behaviors. (Mirabi et al., 2015). Due to this, several models have been created in order to explain the relationship. In this thesis, Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action (TRA) will further be utilized.

2.2.1 eWOM’s impact on influencer marketing

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are looking for what previous consumers think about a particular product or service before purchase.

Influencers affect consumers through eWOM through its high credibility, reliability, and relevance to consumers, compared to other forms of digital marketing (Gruen, Osmonbekov & Czaplewski, 2006; The Keller Fay Group & Berger, 2016). It has been shown that eWOM may impact consumers’ purchase intention (Erkan & Evans, 2016; Lou & Yuan, 2019). According to Erkan and Evans (2016), the quality and credibility of the information is crucial for consumers’ buying intentions, which influencers seen to contribute with (The Keller Fay Group & Berger, 2016).

The subjective norms, which is the belief about whether people would approve or disapprove a behaviour, plays a essential role when it comes to impact customers’ purchase intention (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). eWOM has developed into a valuable opportunity for enterprises since people are now able to discuss products and services on social media platforms (Erkan & Evans, 2016). Research has also shown that marketing through influencers is interpreted as being high credible eWOM, compared to paid advertising (De Veirman et al., 2017). Using influencer marketing could therefore be seen to impact customers’ subjective norms in a good way, which as a result would impact customers’ purchase intention.

2.2.2 Attitudes

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2.2.3 Attitudes towards influencers

According to De Veirman et al. (2017) there seems to be a positive association between the attitude towards the influencer and the attitude towards the brand. The authors´ observations have also been confirmed by Schemar, Matthes, Wirth & Textor (2008), who found that a personality associated positively with a brand would result in a positive attitude towards the brand. Consequently, the celebrity expertise and celebrity attractiveness appear to have positive influential effects on consumers´ purchase intention and the attitude towards the advertisement (Amos, Holmes & Strutton, 2008).

Relationship marketing could be defined as a marketing activity that strives to establish, develop and maintain relationships (Jones, Reynolds, Arnold, Gabler, Gallison & Landers, 2015). According to Jones et al. (2015) study regarding consumers’ attitudes concerning relationship marketing, one could conclude that a majority of the respondents had a positive attitude towards the relationship marketing. As a result, it could be stated that using this type of marketing could result in impacting consumers’ attitudes in a favourable way. Moreover, since influencer marketing could be defined as relationship marketing, a positive association between influencer marketing and positive attitudes can be noted (Grafström, Jakobsson & Wiede, 2018).

Further research has examined social media marketing influence on Generation Z in their cognitive, affective and behavioral attitude components. The result of the study was that social media had positive associations in each component of the respondents’ attitude, which also could be correlated to their purchase. (Duffett, 2017). As the use of social media is related to influencer marketing, this research strengthens the positive association of using influencer marketing as a marketing tool (Grafström et al., 2018).

2.2.4 Attitudes towards advertisement

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Figure 1: The dual-mediation hypothesis model Source: Adapted from Karson & Fisher (2005).

The model consists of five elements; (1) cognitive or affective response to the advert, (2) attitude towards the advert, (3) brand beliefs, (4) attitude towards the brand, and (5) intention to purchase. When consumers are exposed to an advert, they can have responses that are both cognitive and affective, according to the dual-mediation hypothesis model. These responses can induce consumers to form a favorable or unfavorable attitude towards the ad. The attitude towards the ad can have two implications; it can make them more accepting or unaccepting of brand beliefs, or having their attitude towards the advert transfer over to the attitude towards the brand. Both of these implications lead to a change in purchase intention, as seen in Figure 1 above.

The dual-mediation hypothesis model assumes that consumers’ attitude towards the advert can affect their attitudes towards the brand through liking a brand, which in turn may affect consumers purchase intentions (Hoyer, MacInnis & Pieters, 2013). According to other studies, it is however not a guarantee that a likeability towards the advert means a positive attitude towards the brand and purchase intention, but the effect of likability towards the advertisement has an indirect positive effect on attitude towards the brand and purchase intention (Fleck, Korchia & Le Roy, 2012). In turn, the advertisement and consumers’ attitude towards the advert might play a role in their formation of attitudes towards the brand and purchase intentions (Hoyer et al., 2013).

2.2.5 Theory of Reasoned Action

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behaviors can be predicted by their attitudes toward the behavior and normative perceptions regarding the behavior in question. It is human intentions that leads to behavior according to TRA. (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). In Figure 2, the components in TRA are shown.

Figure 2: Theory of Reasoned Action Source: Adapted from Madden, Ellen & Ajzen (1992)

The theory includes; (1) an individual's intention to perform a behavior, (2) attitudes toward the behavior, and (3) subjective norms. As exhibited in Figure 2, individual's intentions to perform the behavior are determined by attitudes toward the behavior and subjective norms. Attitudes towards the behavior refers to the overall evaluations of the performance of a behavior, and subjective norms refers to perceived pressure from relevant social networks. TRA states that individuals who are more likely to show greater intentions to perform a behavior, are those who have more favorable attitudes and perceive stronger subjective norms regarding a behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).

2.3 Conceptual framework

The conceptual framework builds upon the previous literature presented throughout the chapter. It motivates the choice of included concepts and why these are the most appropriate to use in order to study the research problem. The hypotheses are related to certain parts of the literature, which will be further elaborated below.

First hypothesis

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consumers to form a favorable or unfavorable attitude towards the advert. The attitude towards the advert can have two implications; it can make them more accepting or unaccepting of brand beliefs, or having their attitude towards the advert transfer over to the attitude towards the brand.

Moreover, TRA have shown strong correlations between attitude and purchase intention. TRA states that individuals who are more likely to show higher intentions to perform a behavior, are those who have more favorable attitudes and perceive stronger subjective norms regarding a behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). In turn, looking at attitudes and influencers, there seem to be positive associations between the attitude towards the influencer and the attitude towards the brand (De Veirman et al., 2017).

Second hypothesis

In turn, the second hypothesis of this thesis examines the link between purchase intention and influencers. It posits that consumers’ purchase intention is higher when products are promoted by an influencer rather than an online advert. As a basis for this study the concept influencer and influencer marketing have both been explained in order to get more insight to examine the hypothesis. Tapinfluence (2017) found that consumers who had been exposed to influencer marketing purchased significantly more products on each purchase occasion than the control group that had been exposed to traditional online marketing. Influencer marketing has further contributed to a new aspect of eWOM. Through eWOM, influencers affect consumers with their high credibility, reliability, and relevance to consumers’ compared to other digital marketing tools (Gruen, Osmonbekov & Czaplewski, 2006; The Keller Fay Group & Berger, 2016). Lastly, it has been shown that eWOM impacts consumers’ purchase intention (Erkan & Evans, 2016; Lou & Yuan, 2019).

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3. Methodology

The following chapter continues with the methodology of this thesis and will also justify why the specific method was chosen and explain its relevance to this study. The method for this thesis will be explanatory, meaning that the approach will be quantitative. The basis for the empirical data will be conducted through surveys which will be the foundation for the experiment.

3.1 Research purpose

The research purpose of a study is mainly the process of where the research intends to gain a deeper understanding of something (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2016). The research process of a study can be either exploratory, descriptive or explanatory, or even a mixture of these. Exploratory studies are mostly used when the researcher intends to explain and clarify a problem, theory or issue (Saunders et al., 2016), since there is little knowledge about it (Adams, Khan, Raeside & White, 2007). In exploratory studies, the intention is to explore and the researcher has to be open minded in case of new insights appearing during the process (Saunders et al., 2016). In descriptive studies, the researcher focuses on describing the phenomenon in the research more than why it happened (Adams et al., 2007). These descriptive studies desire to investigate a particular event, person or situation and in these seek to answer what, where, when and to whom (Saunders et al., 2016). Lastly, explanatory studies focus on a specific problem or situation in order to explain the causal relationship between variables (Saunders et al., 2016). The explanatory studies attempt to go deeper into explaining why some behaviour is the way they are (Adams et al., 2007).

In this thesis, an explanatory research method was conducted since the study had a purpose to investigate whether influencer marketing has an effect on customers purchasing intention and attitudes compared to online advertisements. Since explanatory studies emphasize to explain the relationship in a situation, and given the approach of this study, this was a suitable way to approach the area. The variables investigated were in other words purchasing intention and attitudes.

3.2 Research approach

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several ways (Bryman & Bell, 2017). According to Merriam (1999) qualitative studies “are interested in understanding how people interpret their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what meaning they attribute to their experiences.” Also, qualitative methods provide a deeper understanding of a relatively small selection of people (David & Sutton, 2016), and is a good method to get more understanding (Patton, 1987). In contrast to a qualitative approach, a quantitative approach can be implied. Quantitative studies are characterized by measurement of variables, objectivism and hypotheses. This form of research approach tends to have high generalizability, which accordingly makes the circumstances of a research repeatable. (David & Sutton, 2016).

The aim for this thesis was to investigate if influencer marketing affected consumers´ purchase intentions and attitudes more than online advertisement. This thesis strived to gain insights of Generation Z attitudes toward influencer marketing and online advertisement. Furthermore, in this thesis, hypotheses were formulated. In order to get a more generalizability for Generation Z attitudes, a quantitative research approach was most suitable for this study.

Moreover, a research process can be inductive or/-and deductive. A deductive approach use previous theory in order to guide the research in the approach and analysis, and where there is a clear theoretical foundation for data collection. This approach is grounded on hypotheses which are formulated from previous theory. An inductive approach seeks to explain certain phenomena by analyzing findings from empirical data. The biggest difference between these research approaches is that inductive studies are more open in their research questions compared to deductive studies. (David & Sutton, 2016). Given the theoretical framework, and hypotheses in this study, a deductive approach was the most appropriate approach, due to the already existing research around influencer marketing and purchase intention.

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3.3 Research strategy

The choice of research strategy depends on many variables, and is considered to be a basis for the author. The time range, existing knowledge and available resources, are some variables that could affect the research strategy (Saunders et al., 2016). There are many different research strategies to follow, where some are more suitable than others. Quantitative and qualitative research provides different methods of strategy.

In a quantitative research approach, methods like experiments and surveys are frequently used. According to Saunders et al. (2016), “the purpose of an experiment is to study causal links.” Moreover, experiments also seek to explain if a change in one variable causes a change in another. Surveys investigate questionnaires samples, and enable the authors to analyze and conclude statistical conclusions. However, the questionnaire is not the only data collection technique used in this strategy. (Saunders et al., 2016). The most important aspect of choosing strategy is if it will answer the study´s particular question(s) (Saunders et al., 2016), or as in this study’s case, the hypotheses. It is therefore important to achieve an overall methodological fit for this study, in order to answer the hypotheses (Edmondson & McManus, 2007). Due to the fact that this study follows a quantitative research approach, a strategy from that section was utilized in order to achieve a suitable strategy. This study therefore utilized an experimental strategy through a survey.

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Figure 4: The experiment strategy for this study Source: Adapted from Saunders et al. (2016)

The experimental groups are those that subsequently were exposed to the manipulation (Saunders et al., 2016). For the experiment in this study, two experimental groups were established, as one group was exposed to the influencer and the other group to the online advertisement. The control group consisted of those who were not exposed to any manipulation (Saunders et al., 2016). In this experiment, the independent variables are the influencer and the online advertisement since they causes change in the dependant variables, attitudes and purchase intention. The dependent variables, attitudes and purchase intention, therefore changes in response to changes in other variables. For the comparison in this experiment, any difference that occurs between the experimental groups in the dependent variable will be compared against the control group. In Figure 5 the relationship of these variables is shown.

Figure 5: Dependent & Independent variables Source: Adapted from Saunders et al. (2016)

3.4 Literature search

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study.

In this thesis, several databases were used in order to collect literature. Google scholar was the primary database, but also databases from LTU were applied. Keywords such as; influencer marketing, online advertising, purchase intention, attitude, TRA, and social media were utilized in the data collection.

3.5 Survey design

In order to answer the study’s hypothesis and execute the experiment, a questionnaire was constructed. The questionnaire for this study is shown in Appendix 3. The questionnaire was constructed to investigate two different variables, attitudes and purchase intention. A questionnaire enables authors to examine and explain relationships between variables (Saunders et al., 2016), which in this case enabled us to investigate attitudes and purchase intention, in relation to influencer marketing and online advertisement. According to Saunders et al. (2016), “the design of your questionnaire will affect the response rate and the reliability and validity of the data you collect”. The design of a questionnaire differs according to how it is handled and the amount of contact you have with the respondents (Saunders et al., 2016).

The design of the questionnaire was constructed with rating questions, where people mark how they feel on a scale. Rating questions regularly use the Likert-style rating scale, designed through an attitudinal scale (Saunders et al., 2016). Likert scale was developed by Rensis Likert as a five-point bipolar response scale (Edmondson, 2005). It tries to assess people´s agreement/disagreement, approval/disapproval, and is one of the most widely scale to measure attitudes (Albaum, 1997). The scale was originally on a five-point scale but has developed into a seven-point scale, and can be used in different point scales. According to Symonds (1924), the seven-point scale is close to optimal reliability. This study therefore followed a seven-point Likert scale. According to Saunders et al. (2016) it is important to use both positive and negative statements in the questionnaire when using Likert scale, in order to ensure that the respondent reads each statement. The questionnaire was therefore involved with both positive and negative statements. Moreover, scale items regarding attitudes were adopted from research by Sengupta & Johar (2002).

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of variables; (1) opinion, (2) behaviour and (3) attribute. The opinion variable records how the respondents feel about something, what they believe or think is true or false (Saunders et al., 2016). In contrast, behavior data records behaviour in what the respondents do or are. The difference is that the opinion is the respondents concrete experience. The attribute variable records characteristics from the respondent such as age, gender or occupation. In this study, the variables of opinion and behavior was used in creating the questions to address the consumers attitudes and purchasing intentions.

3.5.1 Pilot study

A pilot study is created in order to avoid uncertainties with the planned survey (Bryman & Bell, 2011). The researcher has to spend time in order to ensure that design and data are representative to ensure good response rate (Saunders et al., 2016). A pilot study was therefore established to exclude possible uncertainties in the questionnaire that could appear among the respondents. Since the questions were translated from English to Swedish, it was needed to ensure the transparency. Also to minimize the different ways to interpret the questions due to reliability (Saunders et al., 2016). The questionnaire was tested on five students at LTU who all gave comments in how they interpreted the questions.

3.6 Data collection

The primary data in this study were collected from a questionnaire which was distributed by Google form. In order to collect data, the questionnaire can be distributed in different ways and which way that is most suitable depends on the amount of time available between the respondent and researcher.

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understand the attitudes further. The choice of having an internet-mediated questionnaire may have affected the study in terms of validity.

Saunders et al. (2016) state that a questionnaire is a general term for an assembly of all the techniques of collection data where each person is asked to answer a set of questions that is predetermined. Further on, when collecting data through questionnaires there are some things to take into consideration to ensure an appropriate questionnaire technique is adapted. In explanatory research where casual relationships are examined, a different research design is required (Gill and Johnson, 2002). In explanatory research, the data is required to test a theory. In other words, the theory that is tested and the variables that are being compared, need to be defined by the researcher clearly before designing the questionnaire. Particularly, the study must be clear about the relationships that are likely to exist between the variables (Saunders et al., 2016). As the authors stated, the technique of creating an appropriate questionnaire regarding attitudes and purchasing behavior was clearly studied.

3.6.1 Sampling

The use of sampling is according to Saunders et al. (2016) important when having restrictions in time, money or access before analyzing data. Using sampling technique enables the researcher to reduce the amount of collected data and instead only collect data from a smaller subgroup of all the possible cases. In this study, the population of LTU students were of interest. Moreover, there are two different sampling selection techniques categorized, probability sampling and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling indicates that each case from a population has an equal chance of being selected for the subgroup, which is not the case for a non-probability sampling. In this study, both of these sampling techniques were utilized. Moreover, using probability sampling is most suitable when having surveys and an experimental research approach and intentions to estimate statistics. Consequently out of this, in this study a probability sampling technique was applied for the surveys which meant having an experimental approach where the respondents had to be allocated randomly with an equal chance of being selected for the study. Finally, the non-probability sampling was applied when handpicking the influencer for the survey, since in this method, the researchers requirements and judgements are utilized. (Saunders et al., 2016)

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distribution (Saunders et al., 2016). Stutely (2003) recommends a minimum of 30 respondents for a statistical analysis in each category of the study´s total sample. In this study, each group, both in the experimental groups and the control group, was therefore chosen to consist of 35 respondents which is slightly above 30. Consequently, the total sample size was 105 for this study, as exhibited in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Sample size of the study.

In order to select which respondents that will be targeted, the study will utilize simple random sampling. This technique enables the researcher to select samples from random numbers or a computer (Saunders et al., 2016). In this study, we chose to contact randomly selected programs at LTU by email. To match the study’s targeted group which is Generation Z, students between the age 18-24 were selected. Those who answered with another age were therefore ignored and the first 35 who answered with the age of 18-24 were therefore chosen for the study.

3.7 Data analysis

The data was analyzed with help from Google and an ANOVA calculator. This enabled us to analyze the different areas and possible outcomes.

3.7.1 Reliability

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According to Symonds (1924), the seven-point scale is close to optimal reliability, and has therefore shown strong reliability in previous research. As for the reliability for the scale in this study, it could be assumed that the seven-point scale performed well due to the various scale options to choose from.

In this thesis, it was investigated if influencer marketing affected consumers’ purchase intention more than online advertisement. To ensure that the reliability was as high as possible, the study used an everyday language without complexity and had a list of concepts that described more difficult words that were necessary for the thesis. Furthermore, the thesis has been written in an objective way to avoid interfering with one's own personal opinions to ensure that the reliability becomes as high as possible.

3.7.2 Validity

Validity tries to determine whether a measure of a concept really measures that concept, that is, the extent to which the concept measures the thing it was intended to measure from the start of the study (Bryman & Bell, 2011; Singh, 1976; Saunders et al., 2016). The validity could be strengthened since the thesis was based on a theoretical framework from previous studies, which meant that the different variables had been tested in previous research in the field that this study dealt with.

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4. Results

The following chapter will present the data that was collected through the study’s experiment. It will begin with a summary of the data and a summary from the ANOVA followed by further tests with the help of Tukey-Kramer Post Hoc test.

4.1 Description of respondents

A total of 105 respondents participated in the experiment, whose answers created the basis for the result of this study. The study had one questionnaire which was administered to both of the treatment groups as well as the control group. Each group consisted of 35 respondents. The brand name was mentioned to all three groups. However, the first treatment group was exposed to an advert, the second treatment group to the influencer’s message and the control group were exposed to nothing, only the brand name “Red Bull”. All questions were mandatory, which means that all participants answered all questions. The result of the distribution of the total respondents is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Distribution of the total respondents

As shown in Table 1, the majority of those who participated in this experiment were men. 64% was men, meanwhile 35% was women. Only 1% was defined as “other” in this experiment. The result of the distribution within groups when it comes to gender is shown in Table 2.

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Table 2 shows that the control group was the only group that had a relatively even distribution among the gender in contrast to the influencer and advert groups, that both had a majority of men.

4.2 Hypothesis testing

The data were summarized in an excel sheet which thereafter was imported to an ANOVA calculator for further tests and calculations. The results that came out were thereafter the basis for the study’s analytical part. ANOVA is chosen when a study wants to determine if there are any statistical differences between the means in three or more independent groups, and was therefore suitable for this study. ANOVA compares the means between the groups and determines if the differences between those means are statistically significant, in other words, it tests the null hypothesis.

The null hypothesis would be that there are no difference. In hypothesis 1, the null hypothesis would be that there is no difference between influencers´ and online adverts´ impact on consumers attitudes. The alternative hypothesis would therefore be that there is a difference between influencers´ and online adverts´ impact on consumers attitudes. To test the null hypothesis for this experiment, a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis were formulated for the study.

H0 = There is no difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on consumers

attitudes

H1 = There is a difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on consumers

attitudes

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H0 = There is no difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on consumers

purchase intention

H2 = There is a difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on consumers

purchase intention

In the experiment, the questions in the questionnaire were set up to examine the consumers´ attitude and purchase intention. Question 1-4 examined attitude, while question 5-8 examined purchase intention. For each respondent, the mean for each answer was calculated. Each respondent´s mean for question 1-4 was used in hypothesis testing for H1, and the respondent´s

mean for question 5-8 has been used in hypothesis testing for H2.

The statistical significance level (α) for this study was chosen to be 5%. In other words, when testing the null hypothesis, the p-value has to be lower than 0,05 % in order for us to reject the null hypothesis. If the number would be higher, it would indicate that there are differences and we can not reject the null hypothesis.

4.2.1 Hypothesis testing H1 - Attitudes

The first hypothesis test examined hypothesis 1. The first test was to see if there were any differences in the means among the respondents attitudes. In Table 3, a summary of the groups differences is shown.

Table 3: Data summary Attitudes

The data shows that the mean is higher for those that were exposed to an advert compared to the influencer. As for the control group, which had the highest mean of all the groups. The fact that the group which were exposed to an influencer had the lowest mean, is contradictory to the study’s first hypothesis.

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Table 4: ANOVA Summary Attitudes

The result from the ANOVA test shows that there exists a difference between the groups. From the summary, we see that the p-value is 0,18 which is above the chosen significance level (0,05 < 0,18), which indicates that we cannot reject the null hypothesis.

ANOVA analyzes the difference between the groups mean, but does not analyze which group that differs from the rest. In order for us to see which group that differs from the groups, we had to do a Tukey-Kramer Post Hoc test. The result of the Tukey-Kramer Post Hoc test for attitudes is shown in Table 5 below.

Table 5: Tukey-Kramer Post Hoc test on Attitudes after ANOVA

The q values from the Post Hoc test is shown in Table 5 above. The q values from the test were compared to the critical-q value from the existing table “Studentized Range q Table”. Number of treatments (3), and the degree of freedom (102) and α = 0,05 lead us to the critical-q value of 3,356. The critical-q value and the q value from the Post Hoc test is shown in Table 6.

Table 6: Critical-q vs q value from Post Hoc

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4.2.2 Hypothesis testing H2 - Purchase intention

The second hypothesis examined if there were any differences in the consumers purchase intention. In Table 7, the summary of data is presented.

Table 7: Data Summary Purchase intention

The result of the means between the groups is that the mean is higher for those who were exposed to an advert compared to an influencer. Also the control group had a higher mean compared to the influencer group. The influencer group had the lowest mean which is contradictory with the study’s second hypothesis.

In order to examine these means further we will have to look at the ANOVA summary. In Table 8, the summary of ANOVA is shown.

Table 8: ANOVA Summary Purchase intention

The result from the ANOVA test shows that there exists a difference between the groups. From the summary, we see that the p-value is 0,46 which is above the chosen significance level (0,05 < 0,46), which indicates that we cannot reject the null hypothesis.

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Table 9: Tukey-Kramer Post Hoc test on Purchase intention after ANOVA

The q values from the Post Hoc test is shown in Table 9 above. The q values were compared to the critical-q value from the existing table “Studentized Range q Table”. Number of treatments (3), and the degree of freedom (102) and α = 0,05 lead us to the critical-q value of 3,356. The critical-q value and the q value from the Post Hoc test is shown in Table 10.

Table 10: Critical-q vs q value from Post Hoc

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5. Analysis

In this section, the data from the previous chapter will be analyzed and the results outcome will be discussed. This will be done with help from the literature review.

5.1 Analysis

The hypothesis for this thesis was:

influencer rather than an online advert.

To test this thesis´ first hypothesis a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis were created. These were stated as followed:

H0 = There is no difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on

consumers attitudes.

H1 = There is a difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on

consumers attitudes.

To test this thesis´ second hypothesis a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis were created. These were stated as followed:

H0 = There is no difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on

consumers purchase intention.

H2 = There is a difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on

consumers purchase intention.

From the statistical analysis, it was concluded that both null hypotheses could not be rejected.

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towards a behavior will more likely not perform it (Ajzen, 2005), which also was the case in this study. Moreover, TRA states that individuals who are more likely to show greater intentions to perform a behavior, are those who have more favorable attitudes and perceive stronger subjective norms regarding a behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). The study supports TRA statements, since it shows that people had low intentions to buy the product as well as an unfavorable attitude.

The results from the control group show a similar result as the influencer and online advert group. This can indicate that Generation Z overall has a negative attitude towards energy drinks, which in turn may lead to a negative purchase intention. The majority of men could also have had an effect on the result since previous studies have shown that there are differences between female and male Instagram users on their purchase intentions of the products promoted by the influencer (Rebelo, 2017). Trustworthiness has been shown to have a bigger impact for women than men (Rebelo, 2017), and in this study there was 64% men. It could be that the men did not have any trustworthiness towards the influencer which could have affected our result. However, the overall result from this study showed a negative attitude towards Red Bull when it comes to Generation Z.

The choice of having the brand Red Bull in this experiment could also have affected the result for this study due to already existing attitudes against this brand. Crespo-Hervas et al., (2018) states that consumers’ attitudes towards a brand influence their purchase intention, which may have been an effect in this study as well. Perhaps the respondents’ already existing attitudes towards Red Bull affected them in their decision and intention to buy the drink. The negative attitude Generation Z has towards Red Bull could be due to subjective norms. It could be that social networks speak against consumption of energy drinks, which leads to pressure to not consume or buy the product. This is something that could be further investigated in further research, see 6.5 Recommendation for further research to read more on this. Due to limited time and COVID-19 this could not be investigated in a proper way in this study.

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The results showed that it cannot be said with any statistical significance that there exists a difference in attitude for consumers whether they have been exposed to an influencer or an online advert. Also, there does not exist a difference in purchase intention for consumers whether they have been exposed to an influencer or an online advert. The reason for this result may be due to several factors. Further, errors from the researchers are a possibility. This could take the form of errors in the sampling.

5.2 Limitations

It is important to mention potential limitations in this study, since those could have an effect on the final result. Through randomization, a study can avoid systematic errors. However, this study did not follow a randomized study, which may have caused systematic errors in this study. It is worth mentioning, that due to COVID-19 and the current situation in the world, using a randomized study as planned became rapidly difficult and even impossible for this study. The current situation with COVID-19 led to restrictions in this study’s approach which meant that the original plan of doing an experimental study no longer could be pursued. In the beginning, it was planned to do an experiment outside where the respondents would have been completely randomly picked. The social restriction caused by COVID-19 instead made us distribute the questionnaire by email instead. As a result of this, the respondents were not randomly selected. One problem with experimental studies is that the study’s respondents are not always randomly selected from any well-defined population. Therefore the results obtained, in the strict sense, only apply to those included in the experiment, which may have been the case in this study.

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An additional error that occurred could be the choice of influencer in this study. Recent studies from De Veirman et al. (2017) found that there seems to be a positive association between the attitude towards the influencer and the attitude towards the brand. If the respondents in this study had an unfavorable attitude toward the influencer, that may have been an effect in the attitude towards the brand. Also the choice of advert in this study could have affected the respondents attitude. According to the dual-mediation hypothesis model, when consumers are exposed to an advert, they can have responses that are both cognitive and affective. These responses can induce consumers to form a favorable or unfavorable attitude towards the ad, which in this case was seen to be unfavorable.

Due to limited time, this thesis’s analytical part only focused on proceeding with an ANOVA test and Tukey-Kramer Post Hoc test, since these were the most suitable for this thesis. One additional test that would have benefited the study is a factor analysis, but due to limited time, this was not an option. If time was more on our side, a factor analysis, and scale reliability with cronbach alpha, would be beneficial for this study.

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6. Discussion

In this section a discussion of the study’s conclusions of hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 is presented in order to fulfill this thesis purpose. The conclusions of this study are valid for energy drinks. Lastly, recommendations for companies and recommendations for further research is discussed.

6.1 Conclusion hypothesis 1

influencer rather than an online advert.

The result from this study is that there is no difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on consumers attitudes when it comes to energy drinks. This follows from that the null hypothesis could not be rejected. Consumers do not show a stronger positive attitude towards the brand when subjected to an influencer rather than an online advert. This came as a surprise to us, since we expected that influencers would impact consumers attitudes more than online advert.

6.2 Conclusion hypothesis 2

The result from this study is that there is no difference between influencers and online adverts impacts on consumers purchase intention when it comes to energy drinks. In other words, the null hypothesis of hypothesis 2 could not be rejected. Consumers’ purchase intentions are not stronger when products are promoted by an influencer rather than an online advert. As in 6.1 Conclusion hypothesis 1, this also came as a surprise to us, since we expected that influencers would impact consumers’ purchase intention more than online advert.

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6.3 Recommendations for companies

Recommendations for companies based on our conclusions is to use both influencer as a marketing tool as well as online advert, since our study shows no difference between those marketing tools, when it comes to having an impact on consumers attitude as well as purchase intention.

6.4 Recommendations for further research

Although this study rejected the null hypothesis, further research may want to study this closer, due to the uncertainty caused by errors in the data collection. Recommendations for further research would be to look at a wider population and to use a randomized study. With a larger sample size, it would be easier to draw a broader conclusion. It can also be recommended to have an even distribution of women and men. Further, we recommend future research to look at a different product rather than an energy drink. This due to the fact that consumers had a relatively low attitude overall towards energy drinks.

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Influencer marketing and its effectiveness on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intention